Directed by Bradford May
Written by Steven Smith
"Family Business", Season 8 JAG episode. Not to be confused with Season 6's "Family Secrets".
Gunnery Sergeant Joe Akers (Tyler Christopher) allegedly killed his wife Marie (Whitney Weston) at their home in base housing, with an unauthorized gun. Lt. Colonel Sarah MacKenzie prosecutes. Commander Harmon Rabb defends, but he doesn't believe his client. Akers doesn't give Rabb much to work with, even telling his son Tommy (Bobby Edner) not to talk to Rabb.
Certain details of the case don't quite make sense. Mrs. Akers was shot twice: one shot was fatal because it severed her carotid artery, the other was to the shoulder causing damage but not death. Which shot was first? If the first shot was to the shoulder, that would mean that a Marine with rifle expert and pistol expert badges took a shot at close range and missed.
Lt. Singer (Nanci Chambers) visits Lt. Bud Roberts, Jr. at Bethesda to pick his brain about the Seahawk. She mentions that President George W. Bush has accepted the resignation of Secretary of the Navy Nelson. Roberts tells Singer that Coates will be a good legalman "if you treat her right."
Singer is very surprised that Roberts's roommate at the hospital is Marine Corporal Sean Stiles (Craig Kirkwood). But the hospital is crowded, which means that sometimes officers and enlisted men have to share a room.
Roberts's own father has yet to visit the hospital. Midshipman Mikey Roberts (Michael Bellisario) tells Bud Sr. (Jeff MacKay) that he should go see Bud Jr. in the hospital as Bud Sr. works on his car. Later, at the golf driving range, Mikey blasts Bud Sr.'s golf swing as "a hacker's slice" and more pointedly demands that he go visit his son in the hospital.
Bud Jr. has become very sullen, morose, and unwilling to do the work in physical rehabilitation therapy. Bud snaps at his wife (Karri Turner) and orders Stiles not to say anything.
The JAG staff throw a going away party for Singer, complete with a banner and a cake. Admiral Chegwidden says a few words and everyone claps. But before Singer can say anything, everyone disperses and the cake is already gone.
Rabb's Russian half-brother Sergei Zhukov (Jade Carter) decides to return to Russia. The DNA test was inconclusive, so the process for Sergei's American citizenship will take a long while. And already Sergei's feeling very lonely. Sergei still has a thing for Singer, considers her soul "very Russian," to his brother's dismay. Singer drives him to the airport.
Rabb goes to pick Lt. Roberts's brain. Grateful for Roberts's suggestion that Joe Akers is protecting someone, Rabb gives Roberts some sorely needed encouragement.
Despite the reluctance of Tommy's aunt Diane (Amanda Wyss), Rabb talks to Tommy again. Rabb figures out that it was in fact Tommy who fatally shot his mother after she menaced her own young son with a knife. When Joe Akers got home, Marie was already dead.
Tommy testifies that he was hungry and he asked his mother when dinner would be ready. Instead of reassuring the boy that dinner would be ready soon, she tried to stab him with a kitchen knife. Tommy knew where his father kept a gun in the house, retrieved it and used it. After his testimony, the boy's led out of the courtroom.
On the stand, Joe Akers explains that he wiped his son's prints off the gun, cut himself with the knife, and then shot his wife in the shoulder in order to support a claim of self defense, and shield his son from accountability, or having to know that he killed his own mother.
Gunnery Sergeant Akers is found not guilty by the court-martial panel members. However, the judge, Admiral Morris (Harrison Page), recommends to the convening authority that Akers receive non-judicial punishment for having an unauthorized firearm in his house, and that he continue counseling.
Late at night, Lt. Roberts decides to go to the rehab room. He almost falls, but just then Bud Sr. and Mikey show up for moral and physical support.
Tropes
- The Alcoholic / Lady Drunk : The murder victim was one, of the mean variety.
- Alcoholic Parent: An alcoholic mother to a ten year old boy.
- Artistic License – Law: Admiral Morris's use of the term "exonerated" is a little strange for someone who is expected to speak precisely in his capacity as a judge. Black's Law Dictionary defines it as "to be absolved of all charges and to be declared to be not responsible." The court-martial panel members found Akers not guilty, but Morris is nevertheless recommending to the convening authority that Akers be disciplined for having an unauthorized weapon at home, which means that Morris nonetheless considers Akers to bear some responsibility for the murder he was found not guilty of.
- Artistic License – Military: Joe Akers was promoted to Sergeant (E-5) in 1998, the same year as his first recorded incident of spousal abuse. By his uniform's two hashmarks, we know he has served for at least eight years. It was certainly realistic for him to be promoted to E-5 in 1998 when he already had at least four years time in service (TIS). But there are also time in grade (TIG) requirements to be promoted to Staff Sergeant (E-6) and Gunnery Sergeant (E-7). Sergeant Akers would have needed at least four years as a sergeant to make staff sergeant and then 27 months to make gunnery sergeant. This means that by normal procedures Akers wouldn't have been promoted to E-7 until at least 2005, by which time he might have gotten a third hashmark (the TIS and TIG requirements were increased in 2019, making it even unlikelier for an enlisted Marine to reach E-7 with less than twelve years of service). Of course this all goes out the window if he was promoted meritoriously to E-6 and to E-7, but there's no mention of Akers's service record being exemplary enough to justify consecutive meritorious promotions. A captain's mast in 1998 would probably throw cold water on the idea of a meritorious promotion in 1999, 2000 or 2001 (and remember that Rabb worried that a captain's mast for punching a junior officer back in Season 1 would end his career altogether). Without some extraordinary circumstance, Akers's rank is just a little too high to be realistic. Either Akers should've been a staff sergeant for this episode or his 1998 promotion should've been to staff sergeant and he should have had three hashmarks on his uniform.
- Domestic Abuser: Joe Akers had publicly slapped his wife to get her to leave a bar after she'd caused a scene. She had tried to stab her own son, right before she died.
- Off the Wagon: The victim had relapsed before she was killed.
- Matricide: It was actually the boy who'd shot and instantly killed his mother in self defense after she'd cut him with a kitchen knife.
- Shout-Out to Halle Berry: Corporal Stiles was dreaming of being in a hot tub with the famous actress when Roberts interrupted the very pleasant dream.
- Taking the Heat: spoiler: His dad, not wanting the boy to believe he'd killed his own mother, framed himself by shooting the dead mother once more in the shoulder.
- Title Drop: Early on in the episode Gunnery Sergeant Akers says something to the effect that "family business" is for family only.
- Whip Pan: In the courtroom, just before Rabb questions one of the witnesses.
